THE TREE BEARS FRUITS 47
to be recalled, and a second army under the famous Raja Jaya-
singh and Dilerkhan was sent in 1665 to accomplish the task of
reducing Shivaji's power. The Moghul army entered the Maratha
country unopposed, and finally had laid siege to Purandar, The
fort was defended by a Prabhu commander, named Murar Baji
Deshpande, of Mahad. He maintained the unequal contest till he
was killed, For reasons not sufficiently explained either in the
native chronicles or by Mr. Grant Duff, Shivaji was at this time
persuaded that the most politic course for him was to make his
submission to Raja Jayasingh, who was then the premier Hindu
nobleman at the Delhi court, and to effect by peaceful tw^ns the
aims he had in view. This resolution was not suddenly adopted
in a moment of despondency. The native chronicle states that
Shivaji appealed for guidance to divine help, and the goddess
Bhawani counselled him to make his submission at the time., as
Jayasingh was also a favourite with the gods, and success against
him could not be secured by continuing the war. Seeing that
Shivaji had so easily defeated Afzulkhan and Shahistekhan, and
that later on when Aurangzeb with his whole army occupied the
Deccan. the Maratha generals were able to carry on the war
against him without any recognized leader, and with no single
fort in their occupation, it cannot be for a moment supposed that
Shivaji was unable to continue his contest with Jayasingh on .equal
terms. Throughout his career of thirty four years, Shivaji did not
on a single occasion suffer defeat where he led his armies in per*
son, and even when his affairs were at the worst, he seemed to
gather new courage and resource from the inspiration of the dan-
gers about him. We may therefore take it for granted that when
he deliberately offered to submit to Jayasingh and make over most
of his forts and territories, there must have been some deep-laid
scheme of policy which justified to him and his councillors the
course he pursued. Shivaji might well have thought that his tempo-
rary submission and visit to Delhi would introduce him to a larger
sphere of action, or at least would enable him to make the acquain-
tance of the great Rajput nobles of the empire. Jayasingh's friend-
ship, cemented by such an act of self-sacrifice, might prove helpful
in the furtherance of his larger designs. Shivaji had been always
urging his claims to chouth and sardeshmukhi and though these
claims had not been recognized either by Aurangzeb or Shafaa-
jahan* hopes had been held out which encouraged him to think
that by temporary submission he might secure a legitimate basis
for the assertion of these claims. These, and considerations like
these, might have had more weight allowed to them than the
course of future events proved to be reasonable, but it is certain